Popcorn is mass-produced for sale at movies and other events in commercial popcorn popping machines which include an enclosed transparent cabinet containing a tiltable kettle suspended above a catch area or platform. The kettle is heated and uncooked popcorn kernels are placed therein with oil delivered to the kettle from an oil pump system to be cooked and popped. Once the kernels are popped, the kettle is either manually or automatically tilted to dump the popped popcorn onto the platform to be scooped up, packaged and sold to customers.
The delivery of the proper amount of cooking oil to the kettle for each popping cycle is critical to ensure that the popcorn is consistently and properly cooked in consecutive batches. If too little oil, or worse yet no oil, is delivered to the kettle at the beginning of the popping cycle, the popped popcorn and uncooked popcorn kernels will burn within the heated kettle. In addition to the waste of burned popcorn and uncooked corn kernels, the aroma of the burned popcorn is not attractive to customers and may actually discourage purchases. Furthermore, if the operator inadvertently dumps the burned popcorn and uncooked kernels onto the platform, it will contaminate the usable popcorn which has already been produced and may render the entire batch inedible and thus unusable.
Known popping systems generally rely on an operator to observe when no oil is being delivered at the beginning of the popping cycle. When this occurs, the operator knows that the container of oil is empty and needs to be replaced with a filled container. However, an operator may be busy with other duties when this occurs and therefore not be aware the container of oil is empty before the next popping cycle is started.
In the past, cooking oil has been supplied in large buckets or pails. The oil is pumped to the kettle of the popping machine through a pump which is submerged into the oil within the bucket. A heater is provided with the pump to heat and liquefy the oil which otherwise tends to solidify at room temperature. The pump is connected through a passageway to an oil outlet located above the kettle. When the pump is activated, it draws oil from the bucket and delivers the oil to the kettle in measured amounts for the consecutive popcorn popping cycles.
One known drawback of this method of oil delivery is that the buckets of oil, which may weigh as much as fifty pounds, are difficult to handle. Also, when the bucket is empty of oil, the pump must be withdrawn from the bucket and then submerged into another filled bucket. During the changeover of buckets, the oil may drip from the pump onto the floor around the area of popping machine and the oily pump is messy for the operator to handle.
It is known to provide cooking oil in flexible plastic bags which are enclosed in a rectangular cardboard box, commonly referred to as “bag-in-a-box” containers. Such containers of oil are much easier to handle since the pump is mounted in the cabinet of the popping machine and therefore separate from the container of oil. The container of oil is connected to the pump through a flexible tubing. The flexible tubing has a quick connect/disconnect connector provided on one end which connects with a quick connect/disconnect connector provided on the flexible bag of the container.
In known popcorn popping systems that use this type of “bag-in-a-box” container of oil, the container is supported on an inclined shelf so that the container of oil is tilted at an angle. While this tilting of the container improves movement of the oil toward the outlet of the container, there is still an area within the flexible bag in which the oil can become trapped. While the oil is drawn from the flexible bag by the pump, the bag collapses within the cardboard box. However, the drawing capacity of the pump is typically not sufficient to completely collapse the bag so that some of the oil becomes trapped below the outlet of the tilted container. This results in some waste of the cooking oil which can be relatively costly over time.
Therefore, there is a need for an oil delivery system for use in a popcorn popping machine to deliver cooking oil to a kettle which addresses these and other known shortcomings and drawbacks of known oil delivery systems.